HomeNewsBriefNorth Mexico Police Chief Gunned Down in Office
BRIEF

North Mexico Police Chief Gunned Down in Office

GULF CARTEL / 28 JUN 2011 BY PATRICK CORCORAN EN

The chief of police in a suburb of the wealthy north Mexico city of Monterrey has been gunned down, as authorities struggle to keep a lid on one of the country's most violent criminal conflicts.

According to reports, German Perez Quiroz, director of public security in Santa Catarina, Nuevo Leon, was working in his office on Monday afternoon when a group of ten ski-masked men carrying assault rifles entered the police station. Upon finding Perez, they shot him several times, killing him instantly. The group then left the facility, abducting three or four employees as they fled.

Nuevo Leon has been the site of an intense fight between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas over the past year and a half, and the murder rate has spiked as a result. The battle for territory has also placed public servants in the crossfire, as the two gangs seek to intimidate honest officials and to punish those believed to be working for their adversaries.

As InSight Crime has noted, two bodyguards to Nuevo Leon Governor Rodrigo Medina were found dismembered in Monterrey earlier this month. A note left next to the bodies accused them of working for the Zetas.

The mayhem in the Monterrey region is especially worrying for government officials because the city is important to the nation’s economy, and because it had previously been considered exempt from north Mexico's outbreaks of drug violence.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BARRIO 18 / 30 JAN 2023

While thousands of gang members have been arrested in El Salvador, some may have moved their activities to Mexico.

FENTANYL / 22 FEB 2023

The misuse of the term "cartel" by US lawmakers at a recent hearing on fentanyl prompts us to ask: should…

CHAPITOS / 17 APR 2023

US prosecutors have provided an unprecedented look at how the Chapitos operate in Mexico and how they dominate the fentanyl…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…